Hound dog hauler

[RNR1957NYer]

There's an old hot rodder's saying: "If it's perfect, paint it black."  The follow up should be: "If it ain't, paint it flat black."

 

In any case, you're doing great!

[ggdad1951]

Base coat..

[bkahler]

Nothing wrong with a 2-tone paint job   They were quite popular back in the day.....remember the spring specials.

[Los_Control]

Well yippie and look at what I did! .... Just goes to prove even a blind squirrel gets a nut once in awhile.

 

I actually grabbed the correct bucket of paint and sprayed the fenders   ... One of these days I may wash this truck

 

While the weather was cold I started working on the wiring .... Thanks to @Sniper I have a working charging system.

Today I spent way too much time on building the tail light and trailer connection wiring .... but I got er did.

 

Then I moved to installing the vacuum wiper system .... what a treat that was and took the rest of the day.

 

Did I mention I also got the inside of the cab painted? .... been working at it.

 

I have the fuse box mounted .... I was finally sensible and installed it inside on the kick panel.

 

Not as sexy as @bkahler lights .... for a beater with a heater they will work     

 

 

 

[bkahler]

13 hours ago, Los_Control said:

Well yippie and look at what I did! .... Just goes to prove even a blind squirrel gets a nut once in awhile.

 

I actually grabbed the correct bucket of paint and sprayed the fenders   ... One of these days I may wash this truck

 

While the weather was cold I started working on the wiring .... Thanks to @Sniper I have a working charging system.

Today I spent way too much time on building the tail light and trailer connection wiring .... but I got er did.

 

Then I moved to installing the vacuum wiper system .... what a treat that was and took the rest of the day.

 

Did I mention I also got the inside of the cab painted? .... been working at it.

 

I have the fuse box mounted .... I was finally sensible and installed it inside on the kick panel.

 

It makes for a good day when you accomplish a lot of tasks. 

 

 

13 hours ago, Los_Control said:

Not as sexy as @bkahler lights .... for a beater with a heater they will work     

 

I don't think my name and the word sexy have ever been used in the same sentence before 🤣

Thanks for the laugh

 

 

13 hours ago, Los_Control said:

 

 

 

 

This looks great to me.

 

 

[Los_Control]

12 minutes ago, bkahler said:

I don't think my name and the word sexy have ever been used in the same sentence before 🤣

Thanks for the laugh

Your truck has the real cool cloth covered wire protectors .... that's sexy.

I wanted to ask you where you got it from .... to be honest, the plastic works fine for the purpose of this truck .... a daily driver. Cheap and easily replaced if needed.

[Young Ed]

25 minutes ago, Los_Control said:

Your truck has the real cool cloth covered wire protectors .... that's sexy.

I wanted to ask you where you got it from .... to be honest, the plastic works fine for the purpose of this truck .... a daily driver. Cheap and easily replaced if needed.

I've been buying that wire loom stuff by the foot from Mac's. They are a Ford place but that stuff isn't specific. 

Edited Monday at 03:26 PM by Young Ed
Typo

[bkahler]

On 2/3/2025 at 10:00 AM, Los_Control said:

Your truck has the real cool cloth covered wire protectors .... that's sexy.

I wanted to ask you where you got it from .... to be honest, the plastic works fine for the purpose of this truck .... a daily driver. Cheap and easily replaced if needed.

 

I've been buying the fabric wire loom from Amazon.   It's relatively expensive and if I was smart I should have just used plastic loom like you did or wrap in harness tape, which is what I did for the main wiring harnesses I made.

 

[Los_Control]

3 hours ago, bkahler said:

 

I've been buying the fabric wire loom from Amazon.   It's relatively expensive and if I was smart I should have just used plastic loom like you did or wrap in harness tape, which is what I did for the main wiring harnesses I made.

 

I dunno, I think the way you have approached and built your truck .... it deserves the extra niceties.

While my truck is often built on git me byes.

The tail lights I posted above are cheap $10 lights sold for semi trailers .... they should work for 3-4 years and then I can decide to buy better. .... I can also decide to install better wire loom at that time .... this will get me on the road.

 

Today while working on wiring, I spent the day connecting engine controls.

The choke cable is for  chebby and was 8" too long so I needed to modify it.

Throttle cable went back the way I removed it.

 

The E-brake cable is also from some chebby truck and is too short, it rubbed on the throttle linkage so I made a bracket for it. ..... I suspect some day I will be installing a different rear end with different brakes .... this is a git me by that works ... Temporarily. Possible if I reroute it, I can gain the 3" needed.

 

My wiring looks exactly as it should .... A mess. But it is slowly getting closer to what it needs to be. I'm satisfied with what is finished .... just what is not is a mess.

 

So yeah I have plastic sheathing on my wires for now ..... I reserve right to change that at any time in the future.

 

[Young Ed]

2 hours ago, Los_Control said:

I dunno, I think the way you have approached and built your truck .... it deserves the extra niceties.

While my truck is often built on git me byes.

The tail lights I posted above are cheap $10 lights sold for semi trailers .... they should work for 3-4 years and then I can decide to buy better. .... I can also decide to install better wire loom at that time .... this will get me on the road.

 

Today while working on wiring, I spent the day connecting engine controls.

The choke cable is for  chebby and was 8" too long so I needed to modify it.

Throttle cable went back the way I removed it.

 

The E-brake cable is also from some chebby truck and is too short, it rubbed on the throttle linkage so I made a bracket for it. ..... I suspect some day I will be installing a different rear end with different brakes .... this is a git me by that works ... Temporarily. Possible if I reroute it, I can gain the 3" needed.

 

My wiring looks exactly as it should .... A mess. But it is slowly getting closer to what it needs to be. I'm satisfied with what is finished .... just what is not is a mess.

 

So yeah I have plastic sheathing on my wires for now ..... I reserve right to change that at any time in the future.

 

I'm still running those temporary lights 20y later. If they work they work

 

 

[Merle Coggins]

I ran those cheap Peterson tail lights for several years before I bought a set of reproduction 'vintage' Dodge tail lights. I like the look with the 'DODGE' logo in the lenses, but the Peterson lights were better quality in regards to the light socket and wiring. 

[bkahler]

1 hour ago, Merle Coggins said:

I ran those cheap Peterson tail lights for several years before I bought a set of reproduction 'vintage' Dodge tail lights. I like the look with the 'DODGE' logo in the lenses, but the Peterson lights were better quality in regards to the light socket and wiring. 

 

The tail lights I'm using came from Roberts, bought back in 1997, turned out to be poorly made at best.  I ended up removing the bulb sockets and silver soldering in new replacement sockets.  I also had to remake the lens gaskets out of 1/4" thick cork in order to get things to fit properly.  The body, trim ring and glass were ok but for $100 I expected much better product.  

 

[Los_Control]

15 hours ago, Young Ed said:

I'm still running those temporary lights 20y later. If they work they work

I agree with you on that.

While mine seem to fit and function as they should, sockets are good enough .... the cases are all plastic.

I feel I built sturdy brackets and ran external grounds to them ..... They have every chance needed to last a long time .... I'm just not very optimistic mine will last 20 years.

[Los_Control]

Been lazy today ... I did order 2 tires today 235 75r 15 ... being cheap as usual. I only have 2 wheels painted and ready to mount tires on.

Get those mounted and can then remove the tires on the other 2 wheels and get them painted while waiting for the next 2 tires to be delivered.

As they say in the semi truck world, a set of drivers for the rear and I may want to run a smooth highway tire for the front.

At least with 2 I can play with it and decide later.

[bkahler]

6 minutes ago, Los_Control said:

Been lazy today ... I did order 2 tires today 235 75r 15 ... being cheap as usual. I only have 2 wheels painted and ready to mount tires on.

Get those mounted and can then remove the tires on the other 2 wheels and get them painted while waiting for the next 2 tires to be delivered.

As they say in the semi truck world, a set of drivers for the rear and I may want to run a smooth highway tire for the front.

At least with 2 I can play with it and decide later.

 

Put those tires on the front and big wide slicks on the back 😁

 

[bkahler]

40 minutes ago, Los_Control said:

I agree with you on that.

While mine seem to fit and function as they should, sockets are good enough .... the cases are all plastic.

I feel I built sturdy brackets and ran external grounds to them ..... They have every chance needed to last a long time .... I'm just not very optimistic mine will last 20 years.

 

Unfortunately,  not to many things last 20  years anymore